


Her Kiss, The Riot

by Somebodys_Hermione



Category: Hadestown - Mitchell
Genre: F/M, Reminder that this musical is a tragedy, and therefore will cause problems on purpose, but eurydice is also Angry, fuck capitalism, sometimes you've just got to unionize hell
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-29
Updated: 2020-03-29
Packaged: 2021-02-23 01:29:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,226
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23370238
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Somebodys_Hermione/pseuds/Somebodys_Hermione
Summary: Eurydice was an angry young girl and now she's stuck in hell.
Relationships: Eurydice/Orpheus (Hadestown), Hades/Persephone (Hadestown)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 66





	Her Kiss, The Riot

**Author's Note:**

> The Eurydice fighting the institution of capitalism fic we want and deserve

It took her a while to decide how she felt. Time was liquid here, in a way that didn’t fully make sense to her yet, so she wasn’t sure how long she’d simply been sitting there, feeling Emotion but not anything she could name. Just an ache. 

Eventually, she was able to sift through the threads of feelings, picking and putting aside all sorts of awful things like Abandonment, Betrayal, and Despair. After all the sifting, what she found at the core of everything, like an ugly bleeding mass was Anger. This wasn’t exactly surprising, because she was, in fact, very angry. What was surprising was the fact that it didn’t feel like she expected it to. This wasn’t sad, hurt anger at the fact that she’d been left behind like she thought it would be. This felt righteous. This felt motivating. This felt like war paint. 

She was suddenly overcome by the desire to make a picket sign.

***

People who knew Eurydice after she met Orpheus didn’t tend to think about who she had been before, and that was mainly because Eurydice didn’t like to think about it. She’d been a lonely girl who always just kept moving trying not to let the exhaustion catch up with her. She was barely there most of the time, so hidden inside herself sometimes it was hard to come back out. 

When you’re running from town to town simply trying to find enough food to keep running, you see a lot of the worst of humanity. You see families living on the streets because a landlord chose money over humanity. You see men almost killing each other over food to feed their families. You see your own life flash before your eyes over and over again as you’re desperately doing whatever it takes to stay standing.

But, the thing is, you sometimes also get to see the best of humanity. You have to look harder, and it’s easier to notice when you aren’t in and out of towns like staying in one place burns you. But Eurydice remembered hoards of people standing outside of factories demanding better pay, farmers coming out in droves to prevent a bank from stealing a farm. You get to see _ riots. _

She’d always been an angry girl, likely a direct side effect of the world she grew up in, and Eurydice liked the idea of riots. There was something romantic in her mind about the idea of using the power of collective will to force change while also getting to yell and (maybe) smash things. 

Orpheus wouldn’t have seen it that way. He was never really a big fan of smashing things. He believed too much in the inherent good of other people. He approached problems with his words rather than his fists (he also, let’s be honest, wouldn’t exactly win a fistfight, but she loved him too much to say that).

But here is where Eurydice got lucky because her poet already used his words here. He’d already inspired the workers down here in the underworld with his song before he...before they’d….

He’d already inspired the workers and given them hope, so Eurydice didn’t have to do that. She knew she wasn’t exactly a people person, nevermind a leader, and she doubted very much that people would listen when she talked. 

As she walked into Hadestown she saw the workers turn to stare. As she pushed various crates and boxes together, she noticed the flash of recognition on their faces. The disappointment when they realized she was here, and what that meant. By the time she had scrambled on top of her make-shift pile, almost all eyes were on her. She waited just a few seconds more for the rest to notice her. When she spoke, it wasn’t loud, but she swore her words rang out through the crowd. 

“Alright. Who here wants to fuck things up for real this time?”

***

It took less time than she expected it to actually, and sure, time was elastic here but it seemed to her only a few moments after she’d convinced the workers to leave their posts and throng after her that Hades appeared at the door of his office, looking absolutely incensed. 

Good. 

She wasn’t sure she’d call it happiness, because she still wasn’t sure if she had the ability to feel that anymore, but as Hades demanded she come into his office she definitely felt a soft warmth bloom in her chest that might be best described as a smug satisfaction. 

When she entered the office, she couldn’t help but notice how...disheveled it looked. Not that it had been spotless the last time she’d seen it, but it had at least seemed to have some semblance of order. Now...it was impossible not to see the papers strewn about in haphazard piles, stacked precariously on his behemoth of a desk. The way Hades was framed on all sides by this mountain of paperwork would almost have been comical if it weren’t for the distinctly unamused look on his face. 

“What exactly do you think you’re doing?” Hades’ voice had gone so deep that she almost struggled to hear it. 

“Protesting,” she responded with a casual shrug as if it were obvious (it was obvious.) 

“Oh is that so?” he chuckled, which really pissed her off, but then he had to go and say it. He had to say “I should have just let you go if you were going to be this much of a pain” and suddenly she was seeing red. She didn’t even realize at first that she had started screaming. 

“You missed the chance to get rid of me, and now you’re stuck with me.  _ Just  _ me. No poet to sing you pretty words in an attempt to win your heart. You thought Orpheus started a riot but let me promise you, you have no idea what  _ I _ am capable of. I know what happens to people living under the boot of people like you, too tired and hungry to even think about another world because I used to be one of them. But you run a city of the  _ dead _ Hades. You can work us all hours, but we don’t need sleep. You can hoard the food, but we don’t get hungry. And the people here are already thinking about another world. You either give it to them or they’re going to come for your head.”

That had gotten his attention. He was now staring directly at her, with a face that was strangely unreadable. 

“I think you’re forgetting that  _ I’m  _ not the one responsible for you still being here. Your poet turned around.  _ He  _ chose to do that, knowing the consequences, so do not come in here telling me I am in any way at fault here.”

She had to stop herself from going for his face. A fistfight with the king of the dead would likely not end well for her. It took her several seconds before she was able to steady her breathing enough to respond, and her voice sounded pinched when she finally found the words.

“Oh, you are  _ absolutely  _ at fault. You chose power over our lives. If you were nearly as benevolent as you claimed to be, you would have just let us go. But if you’d done that, you would have bared your heart for everyone to see and you would have lost your iron fist. And you couldn’t bear to do that. You made a choice just as much as Orpheus did and I am  _ much less _ willing to forgive you for yours.”

Unexpectedly, Hades’ face softened at that, and she was so shocked that she almost didn’t hear him softly mutter at his desk, “Of course, you are. You would forgive your poet anything” before looking back up at her. There was still mostly annoyance in his tone as he let out a long sigh. “Well, what are you protesting for? You must have demands, what are they?”

Still a little startled at the seeming surrender, Eurydice had to quickly remind herself what she had promised the workers below. “Better contracts. Shorter workdays. Fair wages.”

He practically snorted at that one. “What do you need wages for? You already said the dead don’t need food.”

Eurydice’s response was dripping with indignation. “It’s the _ principle! _ Your workers are  _ souls _ , they’re  _ people _ . They’re not just cogs in the machine!”

“Oh, so you have principles now. I don’t remember those when you agreed to come here.”

That was it. She wasn’t dealing with him anymore. As she turned to leave the office, she spat out, “You have 2 days to respond, or the city of Hadestown goes dark.”

Hades stood and practically screamed after her, “You don’t have enough workers on your side, it wouldn’t be  _ possible  _ for you to turn off this city!”

Turning back, she leveled her gaze at him. “Decide if you’re willing to bet everything you’ve built on that,” and she made sure the door slammed on her way out. 

***

She actually heard it from another worker first. They’d been brought into Hades’ office to renegotiate their contract. Slowly, they started having time again after work. People began remembering their hobbies. And with money to spend, people began to exchange things and slowly the city filled itself with the craftworks of the souls who lived there. People started talking again. People started laughing. 

And after what might have been a week or might have been a month, Eurydice herself was summoned to his office. 

He didn’t say anything, just handed her a page with all of the things they had asked for and a small line for her to sign on. Solemnly, she added her signature to the bottom and tried not to think about how badly she wanted Orpheus to see her right now. 

Handing the paper back, she could see the apology etched in Hades’ eyes, but she didn’t know what to say to it, so she simply nodded in what she hoped was acknowledgment and left. 

***

She was sitting at the station. She’d been there for a while. She knew it wasn’t the healthiest place for her to be spending her time, but....the city didn’t feel like somewhere she could stay. So here she was, occasionally watching as the newly dead souls drifted in, ready to get contracts and jobs and homes. 

The presence of another person was so unexpected that she would have jumped out of her skin if she’d had any when Hades suddenly appeared next to her. He just kept staring at the tracks, not seemingly acknowledging her presence. Then suddenly, he began to speak, never moving his eyes from the distance, as if waiting for a train. “I had been planning on making things….better anyway, you know. Not nearly as quickly as you demanded it happen, but eventually. My wife always hated what I’d done down here. I wanted to turn back into someplace she’d enjoy, someplace she could feel at home again. But I didn’t know how.”

She had no idea how to respond to that and was considering simply slipping out of the station, but suddenly he was looking directly at her with such sadness that it pinned her to the spot. 

“I suppose I should thank you for that. I don’t think I could have gotten here in a hundred years, never mind a month.”

Eurydice couldn’t help but let out an awkward chuckle at that. “I guess when you’ve already lived an eternity, it’s hard to feel the urgency us little mortals do.” But then the realization hit her, and she could feel herself drooping into herself. “I guess I have an eternity to look forward to now too.”

There’s a deep sigh, and Hades turns back to the tracks, and Eurydice realizes too late that he  _ is _ waiting for a train. 

“It doesn’t feel like an eternity. Eternity never does. For some reason, it’s only ever the small amounts of time that feel like an eternity...like 6 months”

The sound that comes out of her mouth sounds so broken, and Eurydice hates it. “Yeah….or 70 years”

“Time isn’t nearly as solid as people like to think it is. He’ll be here soon. And until then...you keep busy. For some reason I don’t feel like that will be a problem for you” and there’s a small smirk on his face. 

And suddenly Eurydice is smiling too, though she tries to hide by crossing her arms and turning away slightly. “How am I supposed to keep busy, I don’t have a reason to yell at you anymore.”

He laughs at that, and for the first time, it sounds like there’s genuine humor behind it. “I would appreciate it if you didn’t, yes. I think I’ve had enough of you yelling at me for a few centuries at least... But you built a city here. Try to live in it for a little bit. You want to show your poet around when he gets here, don’t you?”

He turns back around and disappears into the city, leaving Eurydice alone. She takes one long look at the train tracks again, and on an impulse decides to blow a kiss to the distance before following into the noise of a city coming to life. 

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Full blame to TheWisdomQueen


End file.
